Some Books of Reference
KELLY's handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes for 1927 need hardly be recommended to our readers. We make no invidious comparison when we say that this is one of the most important and useful books of its class, and that this issue is up to Messrs. Kelly's usual standard of excel- lence. * * * Messrs. Mowbray's The Churchman's Year Book (3s. 6d.) for 1927 contains as usual a complete list of names and addresses of members of the Houses of Clergy and Laity. There is also an important article on Prayer Book Revision. * * * A Handbook on the South American Continent, printed on thin opaque paper and provided with an excellent map, is a thoroughly handy reference work for business men and travellers. The publishers, the South American Publishers, Ltd., are to be congratulated on pro- ducing this volume for 2s. 641. * * * The Official Year Book for the Church of England for 1927 (S.P.C.K., 3s. 6d.) contains, as usual, a mass of information relating to the work of the Church of England which cannot be conveniently obtained elsewhere. The editor makes a plea in the preface for a greater use of this excellent manual, and indeed it is so well arranged that it is a pleasure to consult it. * * * The China Year Book for 1927, edited by Mr. IL G. W. Woodhead and published in England by Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall (42s.) is an important volume of upwards of 1,300 pages, which comes to us with topical interest. * * * The second volume of the Australian Encyclopaedia, published by Messrs. Angus and Robertson, 89 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, is an excellently-produced and informative work which completes this interesting series. The article on strikes in Australia is of especial interest, * * * Every Man His Own Lawyer (Crosby Lockwood, 15s.) is in its 57th edition, and for all these years has proved its immense value. We need say nothing about the present issue beyond stating the fact that all kinds of new legis- lation are included and that it is as good as ever. * * * Thirty-two thousand biographies of living people, at two guineas; are offered to us in the new Who's Who (Black), which gets bigger every year. This " Peerage of the Intellect," as the publishers call it, is always informative and sometimes amusing. We feel we might have been spared the advertisement pages in a necessarily bulky work of this sort, but people in glass-houses should not throw stones. Besides, we can commend this new Who's Who as heartily as we have praised the previous issues. * * * The abridged Whitaker's Almanack, at ls. 6d., is a pocket Hercules of mental power. The summaries and retrospects are excellently done, especially the section on Science and Invention of 1926. The bigger work, at 6s., is better than ever, and has been rearranged and improved. * * * London and its Environs (Macmillan, 14.s.) is now in its third edition and is probably the most complete and serious guide to London published. * * * We have just received the 1927 Debrett (cloth bound, 3,340 pages, 75s., from Dean and Son). Some of the events dealt with in the Preface are the change in the Royal title ; the birth of a new Princess ; the Duke and Duchess of York's tour ; grant of a Badge to Knights Bachelor ; the new Charter for the Order of St. John of Jerusalem ; and the Year's Honours. Statistics in Debrett are now given for 50 years instead of 25 as formerly. * * * Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (E5 5s.) has also arrived. This is its 85th edition ; the lusty son of a long line of distinguished forbears. * * * Kelly's Post Office London Directory 1927 (55s.) gives the names and addresses of the inhabitants of London, classified according to streets, an alphabetical list of private residents and of persons engaged in any profession or business, and a com- mercial and trade section. An excellent street plan and map of London is included. * * * The Co-operative Presi Agency send us The People's Year Book for 1927 (3s.), giving a full world-wide review of the Co-operative movement generally, and also, among other interesting articles, Professor Charles Gide writes on " The Currency Crisis in France," and M. Vandervelde, the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, on " The Financial Outlook in Belgium." * * * Charles Lamb spoke for the majority when he declared that reference books were Biblia abiblia—books that are not books. Yet these forbidding volumes are the daily companions of many experts and students. Among those which librarians and other bookish folk use most frequently is Halkett and Laing's Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature, the one almost infallible guide to the innumerable books that have appeared without their authors' real names. It will be good news to many studious people that this classic work, published some forty years since, is now reappearing in a new and much enlarged edition. The late Dr. James Kennedy, of New College, Edinburgh, devoted the leisure of a long life to the task, and Mr. W. A. Smith and Mr. A. F. Johnson, of the British Museum, are completing it. The Carnegie Trust has made a grant towzr Is the cost of pro- duction, and Messrs. Oliver and Boyd have issued the first two substantial volumes. Whereas the original edition filled four volumes, there will now be six with an index and a supplement, so that the new Halkett and Laing will be far more comprehensive than before. The volumes are to cost thirty-six shillings apiece. Many of the entries provoke speculation. " Baldwin, being Dialogues on Views and Aspirations," published in 1886, has a prophetic note— though some politicians might prefer an earlier work : " Baldwin : or, a Miser's Heir•: a Serio-Comic Tale. By an Old Bachelor," which is assigned to the author of the Ingoldsby Legends.
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